Granpa' s cheese beard

Have you ever smelled a sweet fragrance or a pungent odor that is so tenacious that you feel compelled to find out  where it's coming from?
This question brings back some memory of  a story line used by my pastor that made me laugh up to this day: it's about grandpa's cheese beard.
The story goes as follows:
one afternoon as grandpa was taking a nap, his grandson decided to give his beard a makeover using some old funky cheese. Upon awaking, the smell of cheese being so strong, he rushed out of his bedroom. It was not the bedroom for the smell of cheese had followed the old man. He bypassed his wife who was cooking in the kitchen and commented : I will not eat dinner tonight for the cheese you're using will make people sick. Puzzled his wife answered: what cheese? He rushed outside and the smell was still overbearing. Frustrated,  he screamed the whole world stinks like cheese. It was then that the little boy innocently approached him and said grandpa the cheese is in your beard.

So often we blame the wrong person, we look at the wrong place dealing with the stench in our life.
In this society we enjoy minding people's business because it gives us comfort in beating up somebody else. We glamorize the paparazzi 's culture of incessant gossiping for it keeps us from dealing with our own personal issues, our shortcomings. We are constantly in quest of the next scandal so we can validate ourselves in our mess. Capitalizing on other's mistakes or crimes gives us some confidence that ours are not as bad.  We are neglecting our own success trying to live through the lives of others. Instead of using our time towards building our own lives we remain glued in front of our TVs. While others are enjoying their meals on the shows, we cannot partake. We salivate but remain hungry. We have become addicted to pre-made, scripted, on -screen entertainments that we often forget that we also have gifts and talents that need time, focus and commitment to develop.

The smell of spiritual death is every where, under our nose, yet we are looking everywhere else. We do smell it but we are looking elsewhere; it is right under our chin. Let's not be looking elsewhere, let's not be blaming others. let us look deep in ourselves, let us look in the mirror of our individual conscience.

This innocent game played by the little boy almost had the old man lose his mind. Sometimes life will play games with us as well, will we lose our mind easily?  Will we lose our mind over things that are unpredictable? The circumstances we face today might change drastically tomorrow. The way we approach it will make the difference.  Let's look at ourselves first.  Let's clean ourselves, our homes, our streets, our communities first before we can speak ill of someone else. Then, wait faithfully for your breakthrough.